34 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



phenomena quite unknown in the individual atoms them- 

 selves. Thus nitrogen and oxygen mixed mechanically 

 constitute the atmosphere ; but if one atom of nitrogen 

 and one of hydrogen be chemically combined with three 

 of oxygen, we get the powerfully corroding substance 

 called " nitric acid ". 



How do these properties arise ? I am not aware that 

 any one knows. 



We need not proceed further at present, for enough 

 questions begin to crowd upon one, but the fundamental 

 one is: How do vortex-rings arise in ether? Did they 

 arise spontaneously? If not, what caused them, and 

 what was the antecedent cause, and so on ad infinitum ? 

 Dr. Charnock thus writes : " The proof of the beginning 

 of the world is affirmed with good reason ". This is 

 abundantly corroborated by modern science. " If it had 

 a beginning, it had also some higher cause than itself; 

 every effect hath a cause." Similarly, " all motion hath 

 a beginning".^ 



The question, therefore, is, Was the origin of vortices, 

 as well as of subsequent phenomena attending atoms of 

 elements, which come under the sphere of chemical 

 investigations, from nebula to granite, as well as gravita- 

 tion, rotation, etc., etc., all purely mechanical under the 

 action of blind forces ; or are we justified in recognising 

 a Conscious, Omnipotent Power acting as the Originator of 

 special forms of force, or of the first impulse in making 

 vortex-rings, thence atoms, thence all the material sub- 

 stances in the universe with their respective properties ? 



The, answer depends upon two factors — the amount 

 of probabilities, and the receptivity of evidence in the 

 human mind. 



' Complete Works, vol. i., pp. 144, 145. He was born in 1628. 



